A patient is helped before boarding a high-speed train turned into an intensive care unit in Strasbourg, eastern France, on Thursday, March 26, 2020. The train will evacuate some patients affected with the Covid-19 to ease the situation in Strasbourg. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
PARIS — France has begun evacuating its citizens infected with the coronavirus from the Alsace epicenter onboard a special medicalized high-speed train.
France’s health minister said the TGV train-cum-hospital is a “first in Europe.”
Around 20 patients are being evacuated from Strasbourg to hospitals in the Pays-de-la-Loire and other regions Thursday morning, thanks to the medical locomotive.
It consists of five cars, each one kitted out with medical material and attended by an anesthesiologist-resuscitator, an intern, a nurse anesthetist, and three nurses.
The train has been employed to relieve the French region worst hit by the novel coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2 that has already claimed over 1,300 lives in France – almost half of whom have died in the Grand Est region’s hospitals.
COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2, which is related to the bug that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.